There is a simple way to increase the battery life on your smartphone — switch from mobile connectivity such as 3G, 4G, or 5G — to Wi-Fi.
Smartphones have changed the world by putting the Internet in people’s pockets. Services like Uber and WhatsApp have also changed the way we live and communicate.
There is, however, a challenge with smartphones which remain — battery life.
With increased processing power and higher screen resolutions, smartphones are power-hungry. A fully charged battery seldom lasts for longer than a day with heavy use.
There are many ways to save battery life such as reducing screen brightness, adjusting the settings on power-draining apps, or turning off location services.
There is another very effective way to ensure your battery lasts longer. Use Wi-Fi instead of your mobile network.
Recent testing by MyBroadband revealed that using Wi-Fi instead of 3G, 4G, or 5G uses far less power.
For these tests, MyBroadband streamed two episodes of the Netflix series Squid Game and listened to 1 hour of streaming music on a Samsung Galaxy S21 smartphone.
Each of these tests was conducted on a fully charged Samsung Galaxy S21 using 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi.
The results revealed that these tasks consumed 16% battery life on Wi-Fi, much lower than on 3G (21%), 4G (19%), or 5G (26%).
Switching to Wi-Fi has the added benefit of not using mobile data, which can be expensive with small data bundles.
The table below provides an overview of the battery use on 3G, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi for the tasks mentioned above.
| Battery Use — 3G vs 4G vs 5G vs Wi-Fi | ||||
| Task | 3G | 4G | 5G | Wi-Fi |
| 1 Hour Apple Music streaming | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Netflix Squid Game Episode 1 | 10% | 8% | 11% | 6% |
| Netflix Squid Game Episode 2 | 7% | 7% | 11% | 6% |
| Total | 21% | 19% | 26% | 16% |